


Tinkering

by MyrddinDerwydd



Series: Vakara Ryder [2]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Alien Romance, Alien Technology, Alien/Human Relationships, Developing Relationship, F/M, Music, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-18
Updated: 2019-05-18
Packaged: 2020-03-07 11:30:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 964
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18872317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyrddinDerwydd/pseuds/MyrddinDerwydd
Summary: If you put two sentimental techies from different galaxies together, what do you get?Hint: It's Vakara and Jaal.





	Tinkering

**Author's Note:**

> **I'm casually working on a Shelesh expansion project, adding new terms to the angaran trade language. Shelesh words are in _italics. ___**  
> ushataliin - “global tool”, refers to the angaran wrist device similar to the omni-tool  
>  jinesh - “high covering”; cowl, collective term for the long folds of flesh around their head & neck.  
> 

"Uhh, am I interrupting something?" Liam teased as he walked into the tech lab on the Tempest.

Liam didn't seem too perturbed, but the sentiment was justified - Ryder and Jaal were both piled onto one stool at the workbench, and the angara had wrapped his arms around her waist as she sat in his lap.

"No, not really," Jaal replied, settling his chin firmly in the crook of Ryder's neck.

"We're tweaking Jaal's earpiece so that it can pull the music feed from my omni-tool if he's within range." The flush on Ryder's cheeks was a common sight these days, but she also seemed to thoroughly enjoy Jaal's open admiration and affection for her.

"Instead of conducting the music through our bones," Jaal added.

"Conducting music through your bones? That sounds like a creative euphemism, for sure!" Liam laughed, eyeing the storage containers on the far wall. "Seriously, I just need one part, than you can jump her bones, Jaal."

"Hmm. That must be another idiom." The big angara leaned his jaw against Ryder's in emphasis. "I am serious though, about the music. It is called 'Classical,' and Vakara's mother gave it to her, which makes it doubly important."

"Translation, Liam, is that he could hear the cello from across the room and snuck up on me to hear the rest." Ryder gave a sheepish smile. "It's either work like this or find out how to reformat old mp3 files to work with his _ushataliin_. The encoding is ridiculous."

"No, if you flip that disk it won't regulate the electrical feed." Jaal interrupted, correcting Ryder. She was carefully manipulating the 3D projection of a small, disassembled angaran device.

"But there wasn't a connection to a power source. Not here, that was behind…" Ryder rotated the image and pointed. "There. That arc is wired."

"Bet it's bioelectric, am I right?" Liam leaned onto the work bench to look at the device.

Jaal rumbled a pleased chuckle at Liam's comment. "It is indeed."

"So, why don't you just feed the audio into a private comm channel?"

"We tried. It's bad. Cuts out every time I talk, even if comms are off."

"The quality was also…quite poor. Worse than listening through her jaw, and entirely less enjoyable."

Ryder elbowed Jaal playfully and he chuckled, cheeks turning a darker shade of purple.

Liam just shook his head, giving the two a rueful grin.

"My suggestion that reformatting the file would be well within my capabilities appears to have been dismissed for subjective, though logical, reasons," SAM piped in dryly. "Namely, 'this way is more fun,' if I am correct."

"Now you've got it, SAM. We're just a couple of sentimental techies who want to sync music the old fashioned way," Ryder said, connecting two points with a micro-solder. She added a final line of software code, then began methodically reassembling the earpiece.

"Mmmm." Jaal's hum vibrated back through Ryder's neck, and she smiled softly. "Did you add the low-frequency modulation I wrote?"

"Mmhmm. Got it."

"Was this really better than finding an actual speaker, Pathfinder?" Liam asked, amused.

"Pfft. Of course! I got to dismantle new tech and cuddle with Jaal." She slid the final piece into its slot.

Liam began rummaging through containers, looking for the part he needed. "There's even a speaker built into the terminal. Right here - in the same room."

"I agree with Ryder," Jaal said firmly. "Sentiment and enjoyment won today." He took the earpiece from Ryder, inspecting it carefully and powering it on. It glowed blue and he manipulated his _ushataliin_ with a few smooth swipes, reconnecting the two devices.

"Also, Kallo said all of the systems in the tech lab are isolated. They're firewalled and disconnected from the Tempest mainframe."

"Yeah, so? How does that make getting your old music on them any harder?" Liam asked Ryder, checking the wiring on a micro mass-effect power inverter.

Jaal slipped the earpiece onto the edge of his _jinesh_ , adjusting the curved bar so that it aligned with the 3-ringed amplifier on the opposite side of his head.

"It does not, Liam." SAM noted. "But they remain unconcerned, and seem enthralled by constructing a wireless Unity link between the angaran and Milky Way devices."

"Run the program, it should be ready."  Jaal requested.

Ryder turned sideways on Jaal's lap, tapping her omni-tool to execute a program, then swiping it away. She looked up at Jaal expectantly, finger poised over a different section of the floating interface. "Ready for Vivaldi?"

"Ready!" Jaal rolled the word enthusiastically.

"SAM, did she just say Vivaldi?" Liam mused, picking up a small spool of wire and heading to the open door. "What the heck is a Vivaldi?"

"Vivaldi is a 16th century Terran composer, best known for a work entitled 'The Four Seasons.' " SAM recited, then paused. "My ability to connect abstract melodies and emotions to concrete concepts is still limited, but the technical skill of the musicians is evident in the recording."

"Ha hah!!" Jaal leapt from the stool with his arms still around Ryder's waist. "It worked!" He spun the two of them in a tight, exuberant circle, holding her against his chest.

"I knew we could do it, Jaal!"

"Don't worry SAM. It's not really about the music." Liam edged out of the tech lab, shaking his head with a wide grin. "Make a bet how long it takes for them to sync the other direction so Jaal can share angaran music? I give it two hours, tops."

"That bet would be unfair, as I have additional knowledge about the code that was written to provide precisely this functionality." SAM sounded mildly disappointed. "It was completed 38 galactic standard minutes ago."

"Told you!"

Ryder and Jaal's joyous laughs followed Liam out into the cargo bay.


End file.
